Saudi clerics have denounced popular soap operas like ‘‘Bab al-Hara,’’ which attracted enormous audiences.

By ROBERT F. WORTH

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Many Arabs were appalled in September when a prominent Saudi cleric declared that it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that broadcast “immoral” material.
But the comment, by Sheik Saleh al-Luhaidan, was only the most visible part of a continuing cultural controversy over Arab television. This summer another Saudi cleric denounced the Arab world’s most popular television show - the dubbed Turkish series “Noor” - calling it “replete with evil, wickedness, moral collapse and a war on the virtues.” He also barred Muslims from watching the series, which portrays the lives of Muslims who drink wine with dinner and have premarital sex.
To some extent, the controversy reflects a cultural gap between the producers and consumers of television. While most Arab television dramas are produced in Syria and Egypt, the Arab world’s biggest TV market, in Saudi Arabia, is by far the most religiously and culturally conservative.
Some shows that test the limits on the treatment of sex and gender roles are clearly “exposing people who are culturally isolated to modernity at a pace that is faster than they would like,” said Ramez Maluf, an associate professor of communications at Lebanese American University.
But it may be the rising popular impact of television, as much as its content, that is making these shows so controversial. Four major serials that were scheduled to run through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan were canceled, none of them for moral or religious reasons. Perhaps not coincidentally, recent surveys released by Arab satellite television networks suggest that TV dramas are reaching larger audiences than ever before.
Two shows about Bedouin history were dropped because they apparently offended tribal leaders in Saudi Arabia, and two Syrian shows were canceled after they treaded too close to criticizing members of the Syrian government.
“You can’t put the consumer back in the box, and the authorities find that threatening,” said one Arab television executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. “A generation is growing up, and they watch this stuff and care about it .”
The recent controversy over muselselaat, as the soap opera-style serials are known, suggests that Arab authorities, whether religious, tribal or political, are also anxious about the shows’ extraordinary public reach and their power to challenge accepted ideas or traditions.
Perhaps the best example is “Noor,” the popular Turkish series that ran over the summer. The show violated Arab cultural taboos in a number of ways: besides having Muslim characters who drank wine with dinner and had premarital sex, one of the male protagonist’s cousins had an abortion. Perhaps more important, the male protagonist treats his wife as an equal .
The show and the liberties it displayed prompted unusual condemnations from hard-line clerics throughout the Middle East, including Sheik Abdul Aziz al- Asheik, Saudi Arabia’s leading cleric, who instructed Muslims not to watch it.
But the finale, broadcast on August 30, drew 85 million viewers, according to surveys by the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, the network that showed it.
Sheik Luhaidan said on state television that he had not meant to encourage or condone the murder of station owners. Assuming other penalties do not deter them, he said, the owners should first be brought to trial and sentenced to death - and then they could be executed.